...it's all about technique!

In my last post I mentioned the book that got me started on my mission to reconstruct Bel Canto: Mathilde Marchesi's 'Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method'. You might now be wondering, 'What exactly is it that makes Marchesi's method so different from what we hear today?'

Well, with Marchesi, it's all about technique, technique, technique.

She wrote (and here is one of the reasons I love her):

"People frequently speak of the Italian, French or German School or Style of singing. Having resided for many years in the different centres of these three nationalities, I can safely say that, with the exception of national songs of a popular and local character, peculiar to each nation, there are only two Vocal Schools in the whole world: the good, ... and the bad."

So how does one develop this good technique? Well, the really useful thing about this book, that makes it the perfect starting place for a singer, is that the exercises are progressive. They start off really easy, gradually getting harder and harder until you have this rock-solid technique.

They start as easily as singing one note at a time, rising slowly up through the voice's range, to develop the tone. This exercise Marchesi calls 'Emission of the Voice'.

"Open the mouth naturally, keep it quite still, and draw in breath slowly; then attack the sounds neatly on the broad Italian vowel A (ah), by a resolute articulation or stroke of the glottis (coup de glotte) avoiding all jerkiness as well as effort."

Even learning scales starts off by singing only two notes together.

"The voice in its natural state is as a rule rough, uneven, heavy, and of limited compass. Having secured accuracy of intonation in the attack of each sound (by the stroke of the glottis) the next task should be the development of volume, power, and compass of the voice, and the blending of the registers. The pupil should not at first attempt to sing the complete scale, ... otherwise there is a risk of never succeeding in any kind of passage."

Eventually she expects the student to sing two octave scales in various rhythms. This graded system is used on every technique in the book, making every aspect of singing attainable with time and dedication.

I think one of the most important things she writes is that, at that time (the end of the 19th century), the style of music was changing and singers weren't expected to sing really fast, flashy numbers any more to show off their vocal acrobatics; instead it was all about very long phrases and nice tunes. So singers started to say that they didn't need to learn to sing really fast notes any more, because it would just tire the voice out, and why bother?

But Marchesi said that the case was exactly reversed: if you learn to sing all the fast notes and fast phrases, then you can sing the long phrases without ever tiring your voice, because it strengthens the muscles in the throat. Whereas if you try to sing the long phrases without ever having learnt the fast ones, you'll tire the voice out really quickly.

Sadly, few people listened to this advice, and singers have now forgotten how to make the voice strong and flexible enough to sing fast accurately.

She finishes by saying:

"Every art consists of a technical-mechanical part and an aesthetical part. A singer who cannot overcome the difficulties of the first past can never attain perfection in the second, not even a genius."